The poems in Abbie Kiefer’s debut collection, Certain Shelter, are, in my reading, about aftermath. They are about grief and loss, whether that is the loss of the speaker’s mother to cancer or her hometown’s changing landscape. But they are also about change and rebirth, and both the anxiety and the possibility of an unknown future. In our conversation, Abbie and I talked about television as a touch point in her poems, how memory is layered, and how ephemerality is central to the human experience. Then for the second segment, we talked about doing things you’re not good at.

(Recorded February 7, 2025)

Bonus Reading: Subscribers to the Likewise Media Patreon campaign can hear Abbie read her poem “I’ve Learned to Accept.”

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Show Notes:

• Abbie Kiefer
• Purchase Certain Shelter: Print (Portland, ME) | June Road Press (publisher)
• Abbie Kiefer - Upcoming Events
• Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers
• While I Yet Live

Transcript

Episode Credits:

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo